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The best four days of gaming in 2018

So another Gencon is done and gone. All that remains is the recovery and lingering con-crud that I think I may have gotten a little bit of this year. However for once I still have my voice, so that is a bonus!

Overall it was a good show - and I haven't put all the numbers together (because I was busy simply collapsing after I getting home from Indianapolis and collapsing) but it seemed that my events did not have the turnout they did before (at least the Learn to Play Kings of War events).

Of course I took some pictures.

Trying out their first game

Learning to play on Sunday Morning

Or course one of the highlights of Gencon is Mantic night - this year held at the Hard Rock Cafe' on Saturday night. There was a great turnout - the place was simply packed! Ronnie talked about upcoming plans (though no new secrets), though you do have to watch out what happens once he starts getting a few drinks into him

some things simply can't be unseen :-)

Ok - Ronnie wasn't really doing an impromptu striptease for everyone, he just changed shirts before the event actually started, but I thought we should get a little beefcake in the blog :-)

They had demos for the new Hellboy game (you can still get in on a late pledge for the kickstarter here, but it is only open until August 13th, so you had better hurry).

box and rulebook

Abe Sapien agent card and miniature

Hellboy card and miniature

Frog-hemoth boss monster

minion miniatures

Doom and investigation board

They also had Here's Negan out for Demos

Negan and walker cards

tiles and minis

walkers

more walkers

survivor cards

In addition, John Jack's Barroom Brawl also made an appearance - a Dungeon Saga skirmish set after the adventures get back and are simply trying to have a drink in the pub.

Mantic also had some of the new vanguard miniatures out. Unfortunately the lighting on the table was crap, so I had to use the flash, so the the pictures aren't as good as I'd like. (Someday I will actually bring my old, small, battery powered light box to one of these!)

Night Stalker Butcher

Night Stalker ShadowHound

Night Stalker Phandom

Night Stalker Reaper

Night Stalker Horror

Northern Alliance Snow Troll

Basilean Sisterhood

Basilean Sisterood Archer

Basilean Gur Panther

Basilean Dictator

Basilean Men-at-arms Sergeant

Abyssal Abyssal Guard

Abyssal Gargoyle

Friday night was the How You Use It! tournament. This is a different experience for a lot of people - instead of bringing your own army, you play with a different random 1000 pt army each turn (ok, my demo armies). It makes for some great fun and an interesting challenge as you attempt to figure out how to use a new army that you may never have played before.

Plaques for the winners

Round 1 getting started

Grant Fetter playing Brotherhood against Andrew Summers with Abyssal Dwarfs

This tournament replaced the old mega-battle - because the game put on by Blake and Rusty simply puts my little skirmish to shame. 20000+ points per side - and they plan to have TWO of these running at Adepticon next year (not just Undead v Elves & Dwarfs, but adding in Trident Realms v Forces of the Abyss!)

Saturday saw the Kings of Gencon escalation tournament, where players start with a 1000 pt army, then each game they add an additional 500 points, so ending the four games with a 2500 pt game. We had 12 players this year and all had a great time.

Round 1

Frank Bradford v Jon Carter

Andrew Summers v Kara Brown

Bradley Dunlap v Chris Jankowski

Amy Stamper v Alan Wigness

Matthew Temple v Tim Akers

Ben Jankowski v Bob Boggs

Round 2

Tim Akers v Ben Jankowski

Kara Brown v Bob Boggs

Chris Jankowsi v Andrew Summers

Amy Stamper v Jon Carter

Alan Wigness v Bradley Duncan

Matthew Temple v Frank Bradford

Jon Carter's Undead

Matthew Temple's Forces of the Abyss

Amy Stamper's Night Stalkers

Bradley Duncan's Elves

Chris Jankowski's Empire of Dust

Andrew Summers' Brotherhood

Alan Wigness' Dwarfs

Tim Aker's Elves

Ben Jankowski's Twilight Kin

Frank Bradford's League of Rhordia

Apologies to Bob Boggs and Kara Brown - as I somehow managed to miss getting pictures of their armies during paint judging (and Kara's Trident Realms army is amazing!)

Gencon was great again this year - meeting old friends (and family - since my son now works for Wyrd as a game designer - they send him to Origins and Gencon (to work, of course) - but we managed to find time for dinner at Buca De Beppos with both his brothers and some friends), making new ones, and even though I personally didn't play any games it is always great fun facilitating everyone else playing. I truly enjoy this as much as playing the games myself!

Gencon 2019 is now less than a year away (August 1-4, 2019), so if you want to be part of the best four days of gaming, it is not too soon to begin planning your trip to Indianapolis next summer.

Popular Posts

With the release of the
rules and starter lists for Kings of War 2nd Edition (if you
don’t have these – you can download them at
Mantic web site), as well as the release of
Warhammer: Age of Sigmar, many people are looking to try Kings of War with
their existing Warhammer armies. This post will attempt
to describe the differences between the games.
The list may seem large, but in practicality it is quite an easy switch
from Warhammer 8th edition to Kings of War 2nd
edition. Plus there is nothing stopping
you from playing both games, or using your miniatures to play any games you
want. I will be posting more a tutorial
on how to play Kings of War later, this however is just the differences. First Kings of War is
NOT Warhammer Light. It is not based on
Warhammer. It was written by Alessio
Calvatore, who wrote Warhammer 7th edition and many Warhammer army
books. But Alessio also writes
historical war games, and the idea of ranked of units has been around since H G
Wells published “L…

At Gencon, I asked Ronnie Renton himself when the Historical supplement for Kings of War was coming out and he said next month.
This may not be the final cover, but for everyone that wants to field their Mongol Hordes or Spartans, the book will be out next month

Direct from Mantic

Releasing September 2016 (Shipping week of 26th)$39.99 MSRP Hardcover (will include rules and lists)With Kings of War Historical players can now enjoy their love of both Fantasy and Historical massed battle games! This supplement will allow for numerous armies from past ages to be played on the table top. From Samurai, Vikings and the armies of the Crusades, you can recreate your most loved periods in history!
Because it is all fun and games . . .

We've heard the rumors, we've seen the open day pictures and renders. We've been told that the studio models are being painted and we should have pictures of them soon.

But since when have we ever been content with waiting. Mighty Ape, an online retailer in Australia has pre-orders for the new Empire of Dust, which I believe is scheduled for release the end of July (remember that when Mantic gives a release date it is the date it BEGINS shipping, not when it hits retail stores)

I do want to also clarify that these are all pre-production images and lists - and they may be subject to change. The prices are my estimates - Mighty Ape has the australian prices - but those aren't in US $ and may be discounted (so I'm trying to guess at US MSRP). Also all of these come with bases for everything and mantic points, so I'm not listing those with each entry.

June sees some big releases from Mantic for Kings of War. When I say big, I mean BIG. Monstrous even.

First, in June the forces of the abyss are finally getting a model for the living legend Chroneas. Now a Chroneas is a monster, and while not unique, they are rare enough to never encounter more than one. Of course with Fireball 20, Piercing (1) and the special rule that it is NEVER disordered (i.e. the only way to stop it shooting at you is to kill it) they do seem to show up in almost everyone's list.
To help balance this out, the good armies see the release of the final dragon variant funded by the Kings of War 2nd Edition Kickstarter - the Basilean High Paladin.

The neutral players need a bit of loving as well - so the Forces of Nature (ok, the Brotherhood can take one as well) get the next Greater Elemental - water. (This leaves only the air elementa…

The new nameless faction is coming for Deadzone. You can currently pick up the faction starter and three of the leaders from your FLGS or the Mantic webstore.

So what do you get for the Nameless Deadzone faction starter? There are 12 plastic pre-assembled minis (these are the same as you get in the minion booster, and are also the same ones that are in the upcoming "Terror in the Deep" Star Saga expansion. However the deadzone starter also included six additional resin models.

So to start off are the scuttlers. Some of the weakest of the troops - these little crabs are your cheap options to fill out your troops.

Inkers are octopi that can create a smoke cloud once a game, and then again when they die.

The assassins are close combat troops

While the gunslingers are better at shooting

and when you need a bit more firepower, the riflemen back them up

Finally are the Ogres. Massive crabs ready to put the hurt on anything in the deadzone.

September Releases
Set for release in September (remember Mantic usually does their releases on the last Monday of the month).

Kings of War
Of course I'm going to start with Kings of War (if you wonder why - seriously, have you been reading much of this at all?)

MGKW10 - Kings of War Historical Armies $34.99.
No one is interested in this new Hardback rule supplement with 30 army lists ranging from ancient to around the 1500's (I think war of the roses is the most recent). Ok, seriously folks. Pre-order this NOW. I put up a little post a couple of weeks ago that wasn't much more than this picture and saying it was coming out - well that is now the #2 most view post in my blog with over 2500 views (my average is a few hundred).

Dungeon Saga
MGDS06 - Dungeon Saga: The Tyrant of Halpi - $49.99
If you want to see all the details about this what is coming in this expansion - just watch this space.

The fecal excrement is about to impact the rotational cooling device. And if you don't believe me, just look back at last year.

Yes, the new edition of the tournament 'recommendations' - Clash of Kings 2018 is coming. It has a release date set for January 22nd (Mantic seems to be moving to Monday releases instead of Fridays). This book promises to have the new narrative concluding this (or, by the time it comes out, last) years summer campaign, including the new map of Mantica, changed by the campaign. Of course this will be mostly ignored by most competitive players, as they will be turning immediately to see what changes have been made for the upcoming tournament season. New & changed units, spells and artefacts.
I can already hear the gnashing of teeth, the pulling of hair, and the clinching of sphincters as opinions explode across the internet. However since this was not able to be release in December as originally …

June may be the biggest month for releases for Mantic ever (at least that I have seen). It looks like 22 new products across three lines will be available, so lets get to it.
The Walking Dead:All Out War Wave 2 hits retail in June. This has been a huge hit for Mantic, and with the new releases (including the final retail exclusive release of Negan himself) the game just keeps getting better with more survivors and more options.
Miles Behind Us is a narrative expansion to The Walking Dead: All Out War Miniatures Game, containing a series of scenarios to recreate the Atlanta group’s fortunes after meeting the Greene family, from encountering Tyreese, to discovering the farm under dramatic circumstances, to the shock of opening the barn doors! The set also includes new characters, equipment, supplies, events and scenery to expand your regular games.

It also contains brand new rules for linking multiple games as a campaign, allowing your characters to take injuries, earn experience, an…